


Second First Impression

by ShadowsOffense



Series: Arlathan's din'anshiral AU [7]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe of an Alternate Universe, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsOffense/pseuds/ShadowsOffense
Summary: Yes, this is just copy and paste for the series:
Ok, there is a lot of background stuff to read, written by other authors, if you want to try this series. It's really good, so by all means go for it. But don't start here. You will be very, very lost. Read at least the first few chapters of Feynite's Looking Glass and then some of the Baby!Lavellan AUs. Readers' choice, but my favorite, obviously, is the Mana'Din AU... and the Sharkbait AU... and Aili in several AUs... and.... Yeah, just check all of that out first. You can work your way back to this one. In a few months. Probably.
Otherwise, please, skip this series.





	

“Darhim! Wait!” Sethrevas catches her arm and for a moment Darhim is utterly bewildered, shocked into stillness. Sethrevas’ eyes are glowing with excitement, focused on the monster before them. Because of course she is. Her hand remains closed around Darhim’s arm, preventing her from raising her spear even in defense, and Sethrevas is practically filling the air with overwhelming joy at the sight of the twisted thing that is about to try to kill them. 

Because _of course_ she is.

Sethrevas, always kind and patient and bedecked with flowers, is a towering mass of muscle and barrier spells. Despite knowing her for centuries, sometimes Darhim almost forgets that Sethrevas used to be a follower of Ghilan’nain’s. That her fascination and love of all living things often goes beyond reason. It had been what pushed Sethrevas, startlingly quickly, beyond her loyalty to the enanuvis and into outright rebellion. It is now what stops Darhim from moving to kill the monster quickly, before it can gather itself to attack them.

This is insanity, but it is Sethrevas’ insanity, so Darhim will see it through. 

She relaxes her arm in Sethrevas’ grip and prepares to dodge when the need arises. Hopefully she will be able to both get the monster’s attention and still be fast enough to avoid its strikes and/or spells. Otherwise the only place she will be moving is between it and Sethrevas and past experience lets her know that hurts. And upsets Sethrevas.

Fortunately Sethrevas is as good with healing magic as she is with barriers.

It is only because there is a new and interesting monster, different than any abomination they’ve seen before, distracting Sethrevas that she remains oblivious to the direction of Darhim’s contingency plans. The monster comes closer, unaware of them, and Darhim tenses. Worry fills her as her fingers nervously tightening around the shaft of the weapon she is now committed to not using, even as Sethrevas lets her arm go. 

She is not expecting the monster to trip, fight with gravity down the slope of the hill, limbs failing, and land almost at their feet.

Quickly Darhim steps forward, spear in guard position, so she can at least block with the shaft. 

Rather than attack, the monster’s eyes widen as it finds itself suddenly in front of two elves. It scrambles backward, raising its arms defensively and Darhim gapes at it in disbelief. A slightly unstable barrier flickers into being around it. The spell is uneven and warped, full of weak places that would be easy to crack through, but it is not as bad as Darhim would have expected. Because it should not be able to do that at all! It should not have enough sense to do more than hurl power at them. Yet it does. The monster’s breath speeds up and fear seeps out from it.

“Wary thing,” Sethrevas notes, surprised. 

“Stay back,” it says, its voice breaking partway through the demand. “Leave us... leave me? Leave me alone.”

“It can still talk!” Darhim takes a step backwards. A few corrupted spirits can manage that, to some degree, but not abominations. Something of the spirit or the elf it used to be is still aware inside that thing. Horror clutches at her and it is all Darhim can do to not try and end its suffering, for its own sake. Someone is still aware in there.

They have to do something. 

“Can you understand us?” Sethrevas’ asks. “We aren’t going to hurt you.”

Darhim blinks. They must, they can’t leave it suffering.

“Why? Why not?” it says. “You were there. I remember you. You know what we, I am.” Its eyes narrow. “What do you want?”

It _remembers_. It is asking logical, sensible questions and it remembers. Darhim looks at Sethrevas, as if she might have answers, because how is this even possible?

Sethrevas does not notice. “It doesn’t matter what I want!” she blurts to the monster. “What do you want? That’s a far more interesting question than what I want.”

The monster stares at her. “I want to _understand,_ ” it says. She. She says.

Darhim relaxes, resting her spear on her shoulder. They have all been lied to, it seems. This strange blend of spirit and elf is no more a mad monster than Darhim. What secrets have the enanuvis been hiding this time?

Looking that the joy still emanating from Sethrevas, she has no doubt they will be finding out. 

Darhim smiles.


End file.
